Always Faithful Dog Training of Traverse City
Appointments made to suit your schedule!
Serving the following areas:
Elk Rapids, Interlochen, Kingsley, Lake Ann, Old Mission, Rapid City, Traverse City, and Williamsburg
MEET THE Traverse City Team
Leanna
Owner/Pack Leader, Training Cesar’s Way: Essentials of Dog Psychology and Socialization Course Graduate
Dog Training Packages
- Leadership Essentials
Leadership Essentials is a 3-lesson package focused on building strong leadership and structure within the home.
We cover AFDT leadership techniques, structured leash walking, daily routines, impulse control, and calming exercises to support a calmer, more responsive dog.
This package provides a solid foundation for future AFDT obedience training.
A good fit for early puppyhood (8–12 weeks) or owners who want a better day-to-day rhythm with their dog.
Price $395
Additional Cost for Multiple Dogs
- Puppy Starter Package
The Puppy Starter lesson is a personalized, in-home session that helps you understand your puppy’s needs and how to guide them through early development stages with confidence.
We cover house training, crate training, daily routines, appropriate exercise, and early socialization. We also address common puppy behaviors such as nipping, jumping, and overstimulation—explaining why they happen and how to redirect them calmly and effectively.
This session is ideal for first-time puppy owners, those who haven’t raised a puppy in a while, or anyone who wants guidance and reassurance during the early stages of puppyhood.
Price $185
- Basic Obedience
List Item 1
This dog training package includes 4 in-home lessons that cover leash walking, Sit, Stay, Come, and Down.
For puppies, we cover house training, crate training, socialization, and common puppy behaviors.
A good fit for owners looking to build a solid obedience foundation with their dog.
Price $495
Additional Cost for Multiple Dogs
- Advanced Obedience
List Item 2
This package includes 6 in-home lessons that build on basic obedience and expand how those skills are used based on your needs.
A good fit for owners who want to strengthen basic obedience skills while continuing to build reliability and consistency.
Price $795
Additional Cost for Multiple Dogs
- High Distraction
List Item 3
This 8-lesson training package includes everything covered in Advanced Obedience and adds practice working around higher levels of distraction, such as other dogs, people, and everyday activity.
A good fit for owners who want their dog to listen more reliably around distractions.
Price $1100
Additional Cost for Multiple Dogs
why leadership training?
The Importance of the Natural Environment
In the wild, a dog’s mother and older pack members instinctively guide them to learn skills for survival. In your home, your dog is looking for a leader to establish rules/boundaries and guide them.
Without a leader, your dog will try to lead. The result is leash pulling, jumping, excessive barking, nipping, pent-up energy, anxiety and aggression.
The solution to ALL of these problems is found by using our leadership-based training. Always Faithful Dog Training will empower you to be that CALM, CONFIDENT LEADER.
Check out the videos below to learn more.
At Always Faithful Dog Training, we teach you to lead your dog using the instinctive methods of a pack leader. Our founder, Abraham Mashal, explains what we call Leadership Training.
World renowned animal behavior specialist and Always Faithful consultant Kurdt Greenwood speaks about the importance of the natural environment.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Are you “certified” dog trainers?
Yes, every single Always Faithful Dog Trainer is certified through AFDT and the IDTA. Our organization has trained over 50,000 dogs in the last 20 years. We are by far the most experienced dog training company in the world
Why don’t you use treats, clickers or shock collars?
Hear from Kurdt GreenwoodA dog starts out with a beautiful, natural instinct to follow a pack leader -- all the training methods mentioned above are unnatural. They also produce little to no results and require dog owners to constantly carry around their training tools.
Treats can offer a quick fix but are detrimental over time. When we exchange treats for obedience, we create a transactional relationship – a “what’s in it for me” attitude. When this attitude prevails, utilizing their instinct to follow becomes more challenging. Treat training is also unhealthy for the dog since it requires constant food. 60% of dogs in America are considered obese! Treat training is one of the reasons for this epidemic.
Shock collar training creates results based on fear and has been labeled abusive by the American and Canadian Veterinary Associations.
AFDT only uses instinctive methods that the dog will understand and have a positive reaction to. All AFDT methods use positive reinforcement only and have been endorsed by world renowned animal behavior specialists like Kurdt Greenwood.
Will you train all breeds and ages of dogs?
Yes, the AFDT method works on any dog, any age and any breed.
What is the youngest and oldest dog you will work with?
We start our puppy training as young as 8 weeks and have no age limit to training, if the dog is healthy enough to train.
Do you train therapy and service dogs?
Yes, many of our locations offer these services. Please check out your local location to determine if that service is offered near you.
Do you train aggressive dogs?
Yes, many of our locations offer these services. Please check out your local location to determine if that service is offered near you.
Do you retrain dogs from other companies?
Yes. We also aim to be the last training company you will need to use.
Can you train dogs with anxiety?
Yes, the most common cause of anxiety is lack of leadership. When a dog joins a human pack, they are looking for specific behaviors from a pack leader. These behaviors are not intuitive to humans so we often fail to provide what they need. In the absence of a pack leader, your dog will try to be the pack leader. This can be stressful and lead to anxiety. So, before you consider medicating your dog, please consider training. We can help with all types of anxiety including fear, overprotectiveness, and separation anxiety.
